An Old Friend

“Pack your things and leave at once, I’ll have your sack letters ready in no time,” The president urged, he was so mad at them for treating a customer in such a way. It wasn’t even because Sam was an important guest, it was ordinary decency to treat a customer well.

The whole bank was silent again for a moment, all the workers in the bank including the customers were all shocked by the sudden decision that Christopher Logan just made. 

The manager and his clerk were too surprised to even utter a word, Christopher was a very strict man when it came to discipline. They won’t be able to plead with him to forgive them, that was the end of their jobs. 

Sam wasn’t surprised that they were sacked, and he didn’t try to plead on their behalf, they deserved it for the humiliation they did to him, people like them do not deserve to work at a place like this. He was totally disappointed in their service. 

Being ridiculed and humiliated at the restaurant was still acceptable since he was a worker there but being humiliated and disgraced in the presence of everybody in the bank was a blow to his personal image and reputation. 

“Please, walk with me, Mr. Samuel, I’ll activate a golden card for you in my office,” Christopher broke the few seconds of silence with a rather cooler tone than the one he had been using on the manager and his clerk. 

Sam nodded and followed behind Christopher as he walked towards the elevator that led to the upper floors of the bank, he walked past the manager staring at him with eyes of pity even though he wasn’t sorry for the misfortune that had befallen him. 

When Sam and Christopher had gone out of sight, the bank returned to its normal activities, little murmurings going on here and there, as most of the customers stole glances at the manager and the clerk. 

The manager closed his eyes in disappointment, he was totally done for; he’d never imagine losing his job this way, in the midst of customers. 

…..

“I’m so sorry for what my employees did to you Mr. Samuel, I apologize on their behalf, I certainly would not employ such hard-hearted people in this company anymore,” Christopher apologized, as he made himself comfortable in his office. 

He gestured for Sam to sit on the swivel chair opposite his desk. 

“It’s not a problem Mr. Christopher, I’m kinda used to it now,” Sam gave a wry smile, crossing one leg over the other, he was already acting like a wealthy man subconsciously. 

“What do you mean by that?” Christopher asked as he punched the buttons on the keyboard. 

He was a little curious about what Sam just said even though it wasn’t his concern. 

“It’s a long story, Mr. Christopher, please hurry up the activation of the card,” Sam responded, rejecting Christopher’s request of wanting to know details about his private life. 

He knew all that was going on now was Clinton’s doing, he must have called the bank and had them treat him as an important guest. If anybody was going to tell someone about his past, it should be Clinton. 

“It’ll take just a minute, sir,” Christopher answered, he wasn’t really pleased that Sam didn’t reveal what he wanted but there was absolutely nothing he could do about that. 

After almost ten minutes of just keyboard sounds and the tick-tack of the wall clock in Christopher’s office, he handed a gold-colored card to Sam. 

“Here you go, enjoy your spending!” 

Sam stared at the card, hiding the joy he felt; he was now completely a wealthy man, with a hundred million dollars in his account. 

“Thank you for this Mr. Christopher, and thank you for saving me from your employees,” Sam said, a glorious smile on his face. He had never felt like this in his life. 

“There’s nothing to thank me for, a banker's job, is to serve its client; not humiliate them, they deserved what they got,” the president stated, rising up from his chair as Sam rose too. 

They shook hands, then Sam remembered, “What of the one thousand dollars loan I owe? Let me clear it off now.” 

“Don’t worry about it, Mr. Sam, that’s on the bank, see that as compensation for the inconvenience that we caused you,” Christopher said, a small smile plastered to his face. 

The president had no idea why Sam collected such a loan when he was this wealthy, from his suspicion; it seemed Sam was someone who just got part of his father’s wealth. 

“Can’t thank you enough,” Sam concluded and turned towards the door, Christopher and Clinton were the first set of people to treat him like a human. 

Amelia, which he thought loved him, dumped him because of money and now he had so much of it. 

….

“Please, we are really sorry for humiliating you, we had no idea; can you help us talk to the boss on our behalf,”  it was the manager who spoke, his voice low and filled with shame. 

That was the first thing Sam heard when he got down to the banking hall, he evaded them, staring at both the clerk and the manager as if they were beggars who had leprosy; he walked out of the bank hurriedly, there was no way he was going to do what they’re asking. 

As he was about to open the door to his Cadillac, his phone ranged. 

“Hello,” 

“Hi Sam, did you forget?” 

Sam recognized the voice instantly, it was his friend in college, Benson Rowland. He remembered the voice, but he couldn’t remember what Ben was talking about. 

“Hey Ben, What is that?” 

“It’s unlike you to forget, Sam. Have you got a nice job?” Ben chuckled at the end of his sentence. 

“Remind me Ben, haven’t been myself lately,” Sam lied, it wasn’t really a lie though, but he didn’t just want to start telling Ben his miracle story on the phone. 

“The fucking job fair, Sam. It’s today, You still coming?” 

Sam remembered, it was a job fare that was coming up for the college he and Amelia attended, even though he wasn’t a student anymore, Sam had planned to sneak in order to secure a job, but now he was a millionaire. 

Instead of finding a job, why not employ someone from the college to work for him, Sam thought, at least that way, he won’t disappoint Ben. 

“Oh! Shit, I’ll be there Ben, I almost forgot,” Sam pretended as if he was shocked and hung up the call. 

He reversed his Cadillac and drove away, heading straight to the college, he called his butler; the one that had Clinton handed over to him a day before, and told him to prepare to add another employee to the house. 

***

When Sam got to the job fair, he was surprised to see the crowd; there were several different companies with post signs, offering different categories of jobs, but there was a particular place with lots of crowds, and he recognized some of his friends in the crowd. 

He went a little further and saw that the people handling the post were Amelia and Derek, so it was definitely Derek’s company. It was arguably the biggest company in the fair. He wasn’t so surprised to see Amelia here, but he never thought he’d see her again.

When some of Sam's friends saw Amelia, they were happy because she knew them and would favor them, but when they asked for an opportunity at her company; she frowned at them. 

The guys were confused, this was Amelia, Sam's girlfriend; why the hell was she being so difficult?

“In case you were not aware, I and Sam aren’t together anymore, so if you think you can get a job because you’re Sam’s friend, then you’re joking. He is a poor and wretched man, and doesn’t deserve a beautiful woman like me,” Amelia sneered……